Despite protests from Mexico that had called for its cancellation, a pre-Columbian art auction was held on Wednesday in Paris, with an Aztec goddess as a star piece, sold for 377,000 euros.
More than a hundred lots from private collections were sold in this auction house organized by the Millon house at the Hotel Drouot auction room in Paris, for a total amount of 1.2 million euros (1.3 million dollars).
A statuette of Chalchiuhtlicue, Aztec goddess of water and protector of births, was awarded for 377,000 euros ($416,000), a price five times higher than the estimate. Of sculpted volcanic stone, the goddess has her eyes directed to the sky.
Another Aztec goddess, Coatlicue, of fertility and land, was sold for 97,500 euros ($107,000), in this auction where archaeological masks and statuettes, characteristic of pre-Columbian cultures, abounded.
Mexico had requested its cancellation because among the auctioned objects “95 come from its cultural heritage”, and 23 are imitations of recent manufacture, said its ambassador to France, Juan Manuel Gómez Robledo.
The diplomat stated that he relied on the results of an analysis of the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico.
UNESCO appeal
UNESCO recommended that the auction be postponed so that Millon would clarify to Mexico the origin of the parts.
“We have to regret and condemn that despite the efforts made we did not get the auction house to cancel the sale,” Gómez Robledo said shortly before the auction began.
The auctioneer of the sale, Alexandre Millon, welcomed the “serenity” of the French authorities, who did not give in “to the media pressure”.
Gómez Robledo explained that he had five meetings in recent days with the French ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs, merely highlighting “the best encouragement” of the authorities to “engage in cooperation with Mexico”.
Millon last week removed one of the pre-Hispanic pieces included in the sale, the fragment of a Mayan archaeological stele belonging to Guatemala’s cultural heritage and claimed by the government.
Mexican authorities said they don’t know when and how the parts that were auctioned came out.
Most of the objects come from Teotihuacán, Guerrero and Oaxaca, and from southeastern Mexico, a region of Olmec and Mayan culture.
“This collection, which is part of the last French collections incorporated in the post-war period, is remarkable in terms of its provenance, its prestige, the publication of pieces in indispensable works on pre-Columbian art and its participation in large exhibitions,” defended Alexandre Millon.
The ambassador stated that a complaint was filed against the holding of the auction, requesting the cooperation of the French Ministry of Justice, while alerting UNESCO, whose 1970 Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property was signed by France and Mexico.
UNESCO sources confirmed to the AFP that they recommended to the Millon house the postponement of sale in order to clarify the provenance of the objects, a claim that did not get an answer.
Mexico has claimed on more than one occasion the suspension of sales of pre-Columbian art in Paris, as happened in 2013 with that of the Barbier-Mueller collection.
This is the first action by the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to try to suspend an auction of pre-Columbian art in Paris, in the name of safeguarding cultural heritage.
However, the executive launched other protests in front of two large fashion houses, Carolina Herrera and Louis Vuitton, accusing them of cultural appropriation in some of their creations.
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